In December 2015 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ditched its Banking Culture Review. In its 2015/16 plan the FCA promised this “Culture Review” of banks stating:

“In 2015/16 we will conduct a new thematic review on whether
culture change programmes in retail and wholesale banks are driving the
right behaviour, in particular focusing on remuneration, appraisal and
promotion decisions of middle management, as well as how concerns are
reported and acted on.”

A review into whether bankers are Paid, Praised, and Promoted too much for doing the wrong things? And how they treat whistleblowers telling on these wrong things? What's not to like?

Was this FCA U-Turn due to road blocks raised by banking lobbyists and their little helpers in government? Or is it a realisation that the bankers are not responsible for their misdeeds. A realisation that bankers are suffering too, suffering from Affluenza? A realisation that the real cultural problem is actually somewhere else? “Affluenza” is an affliction brought on by having too much money. The Affluenza Defence
pleads that the malefactors have so much money and are so molly-coddled they can’t tell right
from wrong. The
defence attorney asserts the poor rich things, brought up by weak indulgent guardians, earnestly believe money can make
any problem go away. Therefore, having been deprived of a conscience due to this surfeit of cash and lamentable guardianship, the affluenza-afflicted individuals can’t be held responsible for their
acts. The fault lies not with the perpetrator, but with the money and the carers.

It is a defence successfully deployed to avoid retributionon both sides of the Atlantic.

In the UK wealthy bankers get away scot free for mischief resulting in a reckless intoxicated (by bonuses) crash that caused The Great Recession. Their fines paid by shareholders (collapsing shareprice and dividends) and customers (higher profit extraction).

The “Culture Review” of bankers was cancelled not to protect the bankers. It was cancelled to protect the guardians – the regulators, the courts, and the law makers in Parliament. Not because it would expose their powerlessness in the face of bankers' reckless greed and ruthless lobbying, but it would reveal something far worse. It would have revealed to all us ripped-off Britons that the banking culture is absolutely in keeping with the culture in ripped-off Britain.